NBA Washington Wizards Boast Strong Home Record, Still Winless On The Road.

The Wizards are starting to look less and less like the team that has won just 45 total games over the last two season. They're still a ways away from competing for any type championship, but they have managed to protect their home court. It hasn't always been pretty, but the Wizards have gotten the job done in the Verizon Center.

The Wizards are 3-8 in the conference, 0-3 in their division and 0-6 on the road.

Washington is 5-2 in the friendly confines of the Verizon Center, but 0-6 everywhere else. It is still early, but the latter total is troubling.

Orlando held Washington to just 37.2-percent from the field while shooting 55.8-percent themselves and burying eight three-pointers. The real difference maker was the Magic outrebounding the Wizards 53-25, and 11-3 on the offensive glass. That discrepancy let the Magic get away with shooting 56.3-percent from the free throw line and committing 21 turnovers in the game.

It was a terrible start to the season, and it made Washington look much worse than they really are.

The Wizards followed their abysmal season start with a surprising performance in Atlanta. Washington shot 50-percent from the field, hit 15-of-21 free throws and blocked 13 shots. The Hawks were an average 42-percent from the field, but hit 26-of-30 free throws, outrebounded the Wizards by nine and scored 48 points in the point en route to a 99-95 victory.

An improvement on their season opener, but not the type of encouragement a young team needs to gain momentum.

The first home game was an overtime thriller against the Sixers, the featured John Wall's first career double-double, and terrific performances from Andray Blatche and Nick Young. The Wizards allowed Philadelphia to shoot 55-percent from the field and held them to 4-of-15 from beyond the arc. Washington hit on six of their 12 three-pointers, with the game-tying three from Cartier Martin with just seconds left on the clock.

Funny how even a simple, but close, overtime victory can sound so much better than being outrebounded in back to back games and allowing teams to live in the paint.

In their road losses, the Wizards have held just one opponent to less than 100 points. In addition, they have committed more turnovers than their opponents in all but one of their road games. They'e shot well in almost all of those games, but make costly mistakes that good teams exploit. The Wizards have the third worst assist/turnover ratio in the NBA.

In their losses to Orlando, New York and Boston the Wizards averaged just 85 points while allowing an average of 112 points.

The Wizards are one of the youngest teams in the NBA, and no one should expect them to be flawless. Even so, if they can't win on road, how can they expect to make it out of the first round of the playoffs if they manage to sneak in? Wishful thinking, I know, but if they can't learn to win in tough environments now they won't have the experience to do it when it matters most.